Last weekend was the the weekend I have been looking forward to all summer long. Cookie and I got to attend the first ever Go! See Spot! Fly! Agility Camp. Honestly I had no idea what to expect from Cookie or the camp experience. I must say it far exceeded my expectations :-)
Friday and Saturday featured 7 hours of on course training each day. I must admit that 7 hours a day in the sun was a lot for both Cook and I. Cook was a trooper... he hung on to the end and for the most part I felt like he really tried hard to do what was asked of him. I was a little nervous going into the camp with Rookie Cookie as I didn't know what level everyone else was at. The teams we were put into were fantastic. Our team "Twister" was full of starters level dogs of varying skill levels, so I felt right at home. The team was super supportive and lots of fun. During the on course training I picked up lots of tips to make Cookie and I a better team. I'm really looking forward to resuming our regular training armed with some new ideas to hopefully continue to improve.
Both nights we had lectures... I definitely learned stuff both nights. Friday night Dr. Devall talked to us about conditioning the canine athlete. I've never really put a lot of thought into warming up or stretching my dog. I certainly will now. Hopefully this is a topic that we can touch on during our regular training classes as I will need to learn how to properly stretch Cookie. Saturday night Kyle Connelly talked to us about Goal Setting and Visualization. I found this very interesting as I do a lot of goal setting in my everyday life and job but I had never really transferred it over into my agility training. Sure I had set long term goals and dreams for us but I hadn't really broken the goals down into manageable short term goals. I think this will really help me feel like we are having success as a team. It was also pretty cool to hear about Kyle's journey to the 2002 Olympics.
Sunday was a one day games only trial. It was fun to take all the stuff I learned from the first 2 days and apply it to the trial. I must admit I looked at the courses differently. I feel like I planned better for the gamble and the snooker runs. Although we didn't get a Q I was happy with how the 3 runs went. From Kyle's lecture I took the advice to set small goals. I decided that I wanted to attempt the weaves in the gamble. Which I did and we successfully did them so we repeated the weaves in the snooker. I was really proud of how we did and the effort that we both put in. I did have a meltdown because I feel like we may never get a Q again. I tried really hard to not let Cookie know that I was discouraged and I think I succeeded and he had fun.
Being an agility camp Cookie and I got to tent it! Cookie was a fan of the tent other then when I left him briefly alone in the tent... he managed to rip a hole in the inside part of the door. Thankfully I think it will be easily fixable. I was glad to have the Munster to tent with... not a big fan of sleeping alone in a tent. It was also nice to have the Munster under the covers during the cold nights.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend! I came home with a sun burn, a tired Munsterlander, and most importantly lots of things we can do to improve our skills and to build our bond. I really hope that this becomes an annual event that we can be a part of for a long time!
